React, Watch, Believe, Yikes

Reviewer Special One-Shot

RWBY vs. Achievement Hunter in Halo 4

"So what exactly are we doing here Weiss?" Yang asked as she adjusted her headset around her massive golden locks. The other members of team RWBY had donned similar devices, with Blake having an even harder time of it than Yang, what with her bow/ears in the way.

"I just told you five minutes ago Yang weren't you listening?" Weiss was busy messing around with a mess of cables and wires behind the large flat screen they'd been using in the teacher's lounge.

"Not really. There was something else kinda occupying my attention at the time." It was at this point that the object of her distraction reentered the room.

A cloud of shadows hovered around the door while a small girl in a red dress walked in. Everyone else immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to the person in terror. Their younger teammate walked over to her seat in the creepiest way possible, almost as if her feet were barely touching the ground as she moved. "Hey guys, I brought the chips! So what are we doing?"

Weiss held off a shudder as she turned back to her work and said, "I'm setting up the Xbox so that we can play some videogames. All this Red vs. Blue is not good for us, so I figured we should take a break for a day."

Blake, no more eager than her friends to overtly acknowledge the demon-spawn-looking girl standing just a bit too close to her raced over to Weiss's side in an attempt to assist. When she did she noticed the game that they were going to play. "Just how much of a break could it be if we're playing the game they made RvB with?"

'I think it's rather fitting actually.'

'Shut up Noire.'

'Well it is.'

Weiss sighed as she finally finished plugging in the last of the Audio/Video cables into their requisite plugs. "Look it's the only game I've got with me. Would you prefer to do some more training with Ruby?"

Both Yang and Blake looked over at their red-haired friend, who was busy eating some of the chips and looking menacing as she did. How could a person be menacing while eating chips you might ask? No idea, but Ruby was doing it anyway.

"No thanks. We're good."

"This sounds like fun. Let's get started."

Weiss smirked at the two of them before handing them their controllers. They had the plain white version while Weiss's was a custom designed model she had bought online a few months ago.

She hesitated for a moment while handing Ruby her controller, fearful of the girl's midnight black Aura and what it could do to her.

'Oh come on, what am I afraid of here? As terrifying as she is she hasn't tried to hurt us at all. This is easily the friendliest she's been since that first week of watching RvB.'

Summoning up as much courage as she could muster she stepped up and gave Ruby the controller. "Here you go Ruby."

As soon as the device traded hands the bright white color dimmed ominously to an almost bleached look, like bones that had been baked in the dessert sun. "Thanks Weiss. This is going to be a lot of fun."

To Weiss's surprise she found herself smiling back at the younger girl. 'You know, this isn't so bad. Once you get past the smoke she's really not that scary.'

"Oh I can't wait to start. We're going to kick so much ass. Our enemies will cower before us like tiny weak humans before a Grimasaurous Rex. We will trash them so hard that the skin will be ripped from their bones and their brains melt out of despair!" She then launched into a deep flanged laugh that WBY could have sworn dimmed the lights in the room with each guffaw.

'Never mind. She really is that creepy. Harmless, but creepy.'

After stepping back somewhat in proper deference, which took her from right next to Ruby to scraping up against the wall, Weiss regained control of herself and said, "Alright, we're all set. Let's play some Halo 4."

The RWBY's let out a whoop of excitement, though Ruby's was more of an echoing scream of the damned that caused her teammates to shudder strongly. Weiss started up the Xbox and quickly selected the game on the main menu. The main menu for the game showed up after a few seconds of logos, a pale planet hovering in the background as the wreckage of ships floated by. Hauntingly beautiful chanting and accompanying orchestra finished the experience of awe and wonder.

"Wow," Yang said in appreciation.

"This is actually pretty deep," Blake noted. "How the hell did a crazy show like RvB come out of something this meaningful?"

Weiss dismissed that with a wave of her arm. "The show is only loosely connected to the games they came from. The story within the actual series is really very interesting when you get into it. That's not important though. We're going to be playing the online portion of the game right now."

Nobody questioned just how they were getting internet at a school that was supposed to be shut down for the summer, nor did anyone suggest that they use said internet to contact someone and rescue them. Such thoughts would end the story prematurely after all, and that cannot be allowed.

Weiss entered the menu and brought them over to the multiplayer section, switching the view to the inside of a ship, where a hologram displayed a large looking vessel. The white-haired girl chose the 'War games' option and started looking for a match. "Okay, while we're waiting for a connection we should set up your character models."

Ruby and Yang both nodded at her in understanding. They had both played some videogames back home and were already somewhat familiar with Halo to begin with. Blake on the other hand had never played before and was completely clueless as to what she was doing. Weiss spent several minutes helping her out while Ruby and Yang had fun mixing and matching armor parts and colors.

When they finished they all compared models. Weiss had an all white Spartan that had all the top level armor pieces unlocked, making her look like an angelic terminator. Yang had picked a yellow armor color with lots of purple and red stripes on the edges and a helmet that befitted a jet pilot. Blake had been forced to stick with the basic armor set because of her brand new profile, though Weiss had managed to make the pure black color work well with a bit of finagling. And Ruby? Hers was a blood red Spartan with a black visor and spiky armor that looked like an evil devil knight straight out of hell. Her creepiness just could not be ignored, even in a videogame.

It was at this point that a match was finally chosen for them. There were only two players in the lobby at the moment, though both of them had headsets.

Yang, being the ever friendly one, called out to them with a hearty, "Hello guys. Nice to meet you."

One of the players whose gamer tag was UknownHiro7 said, "Hey there. Are you a girl? There aren't very many girls who play on this game." Weiss scrolled over his gamer profile and saw a Spartan with a black and grey upper torso and dull grey leggings. He was at an average level and had some good looking stats. He would probably be a good teammate.

"Do I sound like a girl to you?" Yang responded heatedly.

The other player, BlazingPhoenix17, said in reply, "Well yeah but that doesn't mean that much. Some guys buy a voice modulator to sound like girls online. It's not that common, but it's important to check." Weiss looked at his profile too. His Spartan was primarily bright red in color, with lots of blue armor additions and a golden visor. His stats were slightly better than Hiro's, though he had a lot more playing time under his belt. Another possible addition to the team. Weiss was starting to look rather hopeful about the coming match.

Blake entered the conversation, saying, "Would it surprise you to say that we're all girls?"

Hiro gasped at that and asked, "All four of you? Wow that is really rare. This should be an interesting game."

"No doubt," Phoenix said. "I've never played with a group of girls before. Are you all any good?"

Weiss suddenly became very nervous. She had never spoken to her friends about her gaming hobby before and was worried that they would laugh at her about it. Hopefully these two didn't know who she was and she could pretend to…

"Holy shit!" Hiro exclaimed. "Is… Is that the Dust Heiress?"

'Busted.'

Phoenix started geeking out on the mike, chanting, "We've got Heiress! We've got Heiress!"

RBY all turned to her, questioning looks on their faces. "Uh, Weiss? Is there something you want to tell us?" Yang asked.

Weiss could feel her face growing red and stammered, "Um, well, you see…"

Yang stared hard at her for a moment before saying, "Wait a minute. I remember now. The Dust Heiress was the winner of that Vale Videogame Tournament that happened last summer. That was you?"

Blake still looked somewhat confused, while Ruby was staring at her in awe. Or at least what should have been awe. It actually looked like a glare that could scare a Beowulf out of its fur, but Weiss could tell what the emotion was supposed to be. "Ye… Yes," she finally admitted.

Yang gaped at her for a few seconds than screamed loudly, "That's awesome! Why the fuck didn't you tell us about this. This is just too epic! One of our teammates is the best videogame player in Vale. Incredible."

Weiss stared at her friend in astonishment. "You mean you don't mind?"

Yang looked at her as if she had grown a second head. "Don't mind? Are you insane? Of course I mind. I mind this just as much as I did when I first got my gauntlets! You are amazing! I actually watched the final match on my scroll with Ruby. The way you used that barrel to stun your opponent was sheer genius."

The blond girl kept on like that for some time, while Weiss just became more and more surprised at how excited she was about her past actions. Weiss turned to Ruby and asked, "You really thought that I was good?"

The girl didn't say anything, just smiling back at her with a grin that, while still scary beyond belief, still managed to be encouraging.

Blake smiled too and said, "You were able to accept that fact that I was a Faunus and a member of the White Fang, even though my group had caused you so much trouble in the past. Do you really think I would stop being your friend just because you're good at twiddling a few sticks?"

'I think she did more than twiddle those sticks, if yah know what I mean?'

'God Fucking Damnit Noire! I am trying to have a moment with Weiss here. Don't ruin this for me!'

'The controllers vibrate too, just so you know.'

'That's it, no more Ninja love books for the rest of the week!'

'Meh, it was worth it'

Weiss looked back and forth amongst her friends, happiness filling her as she realized that they wouldn't belittle her for having a hobby, wouldn't tell her to grow up and focus on the real world. They really there for her, just as she was there for them. 'Maybe being stuck here with them isn't so bad after all.'

"Uh, hello? You guys still there?"

RWBY collectively jumped as they realized that the other two players were still listening to them. Weiss adjusted her headset and said, "Yeah, we are. Sorry about that. We were having a bit of a heart to heart there."

"Eh, it's fine," Phoenix said calmly. "It's not like you missed anything anyway. The servers are behaving terribly right now. It's taking forever to find a match."

"That doesn't matter man. We have the fucking DUST HEIRESS on our team!" Hiro shouted. "We are not missing this chance. We'll wait for a game all night if we have too!"

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than an entire group of six players showed up out of nowhere, filling the lobby instantly.

"Well that's convenient," Blake quipped.

The whole group had mikes and were right in the middle of a conversation together.

"No way Gavin. There is no fucking way you can make that holograms teabag for you," one of the voices proclaimed. He was clearly a guy, and appeared to be very frustrated if his tone said anything.

"Yes you can!" another male claimed. His voice had an odd accent that was rarely found in Vale, though Blake recognized it from some of her old friends in the White Fang. "Geoff and I made a bleeding video on it! How can you not know this?"

"Wait seriously? Geoff is he telling the truth?"

"Yes Michael he is. It was the most awesome thing I've ever seen in a video game, bar none." This guy's voice was a bit deeper than the others and seemed very familiar for some reason.

"You're shitting me. That's really in the game? Ray, have you ever done it?"

"Eh, once or twice. I don't use holograms all that much anyway. Plus if I teabag them I could be deported for sexual harassment."

The whole group of guys laughed at that.

"Um, hello there."

Suddenly everything went silent after Yang's salutation.

"Well that's very interesting," a deep voice said. "I don't think we've seen any girls playing yet."

"We haven't seen anyone playing yet," another deep voice snarked. "This is literally the first match we've gotten into."

"So… who are you guys?" Phoenix asked politely.

They all started introducing themselves at that. The loud voice that had been complaining at the start was Michael, who had a plain grey Spartan. A blue colored Spartan was the model of choice for the man with the odd accent, Gavin. Ray, true to his character tag of BrownMan, had a fully brown Spartan. Jack, one of the deep voicers, had an all green Spartan, while the other one, Ryan, had an intimidating black Spartan. The last one, Geoff, had a deep orange Spartan, which tweeked at the minds of both Weiss and Blake, though they could not tell why.

Team RWBY introduced themselves back, with Hiro and Phoenix saying their piece right after.

Nobody noticed the fact that they had been sitting in a full lobby for several minutes without a map even being chosen or really wondering about why the servers had been having so much trouble creating a match up until now. Those kinds of thoughts would just create problems, and the fabric of the universe was under enough strain as it was with the damage being done to the fourth-dimension just by this scenario existing in the first place.

"So what map are we playing on?" Jack asked.

In response the servers suddenly jumped to life and picked a map immediately. "Oh sweet man, it's Valhalla. So many good memories on that map," Geoff espoused.

Weiss could feel something twitching behind her eyes but ignored it in favor of studying the opposition. It appeared that most of the enemy team was average at best, with the only really good players being Ray and Ryan. Neither of them was truly great though, so this should be an easy win for her team if she did her best. She thought about it for a moment though and decided to hold back for a while. It would be more fun for everyone involved if she let the others have a chance.

'Besides, I can always pull out a win really quick if I need too.'

The match started up soon after that and the team chats were separated from each other.

"So what's the plan here?" Hiro asked excitedly.

"It's Slayer so it should be just a simple slaughter fest," Weiss noted. "Try to stay together and keep the vehicles alive and we should be fine."

"Dibs on the Mantis!" Phoenix shouted as they showed up in the game.

"What the hell is a Mantis?" Yang asked as she selected her class. Then she turned to follow Phoenix's Spartan and saw the vehicle he was angling towards.

It was a 15 foot tall mech with a chain-gun on one arm and a missile pod on the other. As soon as the other members of RWBY saw the mech in question they turned and ran the other way fast.

"HANDS. OFF. THE. MECH."

Phoenix had thankfully heard what she'd said and paused, turning around to see Yang's Spartan pointing a very threatening looking battle rifle at his face. "Uh, sure thing man. No problem. It's all yours. I'm probably better with the Warthog anyway."

As soon as he was out of the way Yang sprinted up to the mech and climbed in. When she'd activated the controls and stood up, the blond felt a power beyond anything she'd ever experienced, even in real combat against Grimm. "COME AND GET ME MOTHERFUCKERS!" She then ran off as fast as her metal legs could carry her.

The rest of the team looked amongst themselves and watched Yang go. "Okay, new plan. Everyone support Yang."

They all sprang into action. Phoenix grabbed the driver's seat on the Warthog while Hiro got on the gun and Weiss grabbed the passenger seat for a quick ride to the front. Ruby hopped on a Mongoose to follow after them, though she had to collect Blake first. The poor cat Faunus had no clue what she was doing, and Ruby's attempts to teach her did little to help ease the girl's fear.

While they were idling at the base Yang had reached the hill that dominated the center of the map and started looking for targets to annihilate. She soon got her wish as the enemy Warthog came barreling straight up towards it. With a psychotic grin on her face Yang quickly laced the jeep with some automatic fire before stomping straight on it as it foolishly tried to ram her. The car exploded ferociously at the contact, sending the driver and his gunner flailing helplessly. "Boom."

Phoenix zoomed in soon after, dropping off Weiss near the downed drop ship and then continuing on to support the Mantis. It was good that he did because the enemy Mantis rapidly appeared from behind a rock, launching off a volley of rockets at its opponent. Yang neatly dodged most of the blasts and countered with her own missiles, her chain-gun adding to the carnage. The other driver regrouped quickly though and ducked behind the rock to avoid the fire, forcing Yang to move closer to continue the engagement.

Phoenix drove right on past the dueling giants to the other side of the hill, surprising a pair of enemies who had been making their way up the flank unopposed. Hiro had soon gunned them down, though not without some superficial fire damaging their jeep. Their victory was short lived though as Hiro was sniped out of his seat by Ray, leaving Phoenix completely defenseless. Knowing that he couldn't get to the sniper in time the driver decided to flee back to the base, hoping to pick up his respawned teammate and get back into the fight.

By this time Ruby had finally managed to get Blake onto her Mongoose and drove right up to the hidden opponent. She hopped out and attacked him, using her close range and surprise to swiftly take him down.

Blake had only just managed to get off the bike and get her bearings when a spray of fire lanced past her. She turned around awkwardly and saw an orange Spartan bearing down on her, his weapon spewing bullets at her as fast as it could. The girl brought up her own weapon and fired back. Funnily enough neither of them was hitting their target even though they were both standing still less than 10 yards away from each other. Desperate to not die without at least contributing something to her team Blake forwent her gun and raced up to her enemy. The following duel lasted for nearly five minutes as both players tried to smack the other down, occasional bursts of fire coming from their weapons when they separated enough. They were ignored the entire rest of the match.

On the other side of the canyon Yang had managed to pin down the opposite mech against the wall but couldn't pursue him due to the incoming fire from the base. Ruby, Phoenix, and Hiro made multiple assaults on the base from the hill but could never quite make it inside. They gave as good as they got, but neither side had any major advantage in kills.

Then Weiss made her move. While the opposite Mantis was distracted by another attack on the base, the white Spartan raced forward and launched herself onto its back. One well placed sticky grenade later and the large machine was no more. With the enemy's only defensive weapon gone the girls' team was only a hair's breath away from capturing the enemy base and getting a significant lead on their opponents. Yang ran forward at speed, yelling at the top of her lungs, "LET'S FINISH THIS BITCHES!"

Sadly for the blond her assault was not to be. It was at that point that the other team pulled out their secret weapon. A large purple aircraft flew out from behind the base and blasted Yang's Mantis with a huge burst of plasma, knocking out the shields instantly. A combination of further plasma fire and heavy weaponry from the base began to cause terminal damage to the mech. Yang refused to leave her precious vehicle behind though and fired one last volley at the retreating Banshee, taking it down just before she finally exploded.

With their primary offensive gone Hiro and Phoenix prepared to fall back, only to stop when they noticed the white blur racing up behind the base. They stayed behind to hold the enemy's attention, drawing lots of fire and nearly killing themselves in the process. It was worth it though when they saw the enemy fire slack off and eventually cease all together. They had captured the base. Victory was theirs.

The after match lobby was a cacophony of noise and exclamation from both sides, most of which was overwhelmingly positive. Weiss was congratulating both Ray and Ryan for many excellent plays, while the others were all bragging about their accomplishments and covering up their failures. Geoff and Blake were oddly silent, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that they had done practically nothing the entire game.

Once again nobody drew attention to the fact that another match was not immediately forthcoming, nor that neither side had gotten any experience points for the fight. Crossover events given -100% bonus exp, so yeah. No benefits there.

Once they had all calmed down off the action high of the match RWBY talked some more with the other team, who called themselves the Achievement Hunters. As they did they noticed that Ryan seemed to have a very familiar voice and that Geoff's jokes and mannerisms all seemed to fit in line with a certain red soldier that they knew. It finally reached a head when Geoff started laughing at Gavin for some tale about headlight fluid and Weiss felt 2 and 2 add up in her head.

"You're the voice of Griff from Red vs. Blue aren't you Geoff?"

The other girls were thrown for a loop off the Nevermore's back at that, though no one else seemed surprised.

"Why yes I am little lady. So are you girls fans of the show?"

RWBY looked between themselves, not sure of what exactly to say.

"Kind of," Yang said. "Where are you guys from anyway? The wiki we found didn't list a location."

When the others looked at her to figure out what she was up to she whispered to them, "Look, the guys are part of that company Rooster Teeth. You know, the guys who have been abusing me so much whenever I make a damn comment on their show. I don't know about you, but I am itching for some payback on those bastards."

The other girls were a little hesitant about the revenge part but they were curious as to what kind of people could create such terrible characters and make light of death like it was nothing.

Geoff was blissfully unaware of the RWBY's scheming and was instead saying, "Huh, could have sworn the wiki said that. Maybe a vandal decided to remove it for shits and giggles. Ray would you mind checking on that?"

"No problem."

"Anyway, our headquarters are in Houston, Texas, and our website is .com. Can't miss it."

Blake rubbed her hair in confusion. "Houston? Texas? I've never heard of either of those. Where in Vytal are they?"

Now it was Geoff's turn to be confused. "Vytal? The hell is that? And how can you guys not know about Texas? It's the most important state in the union."

Ryan was less confused by their statements but none the less shocked by them. "Did you guys say Vytal?"

"Yeah," Yang confirmed. "What about it?"

"That's going to be the name of Monty's new world. How the hell did you find out about it? He barely even told any of us what he's up to."

Weiss felt the twitching return and asked her next question hesitantly. "What is the name of that project?"

"It's some weird acronym. RWBY I think."

It was at that point that all four girls fainted together, the power at the school suddenly failed as the universe stretched beyond its normal dimensions to make up for the addition of so much information from another universe.

RWBY

Weiss woke up with the sun shining in her face from the open window. She shook her head a few times to clear out the cobwebs she felt clinging to her brain. "Uh, what happened last night?" The white-haired girl stood up noticing that her friends were all still asleep on the ground next to her. To her surprise Ruby looked extraordinarily normal, as if she wasn't a demonic spawn wanting to end the world.

'Apparently her creepy aura only kicks in when she's awake.' That was a comforting thought. She almost looked cute like that, her arms and legs spread out comically in all directions. Weiss laughed then leaned down and rubbed her leader's hair affectionately. She wasn't sure why, but she felt far closer to her teammates today than she had when they'd finished the last episode of Red vs. Blue.

Something about the show was nagging at her, almost as if some memory of hers was trying to make itself known in desperation. Whatever it was though it couldn't break through so Weiss ignored it and woke up her teammates.

Yang and Blake both yawned extravagantly upon waking, while Weiss let Ruby sleep a little long. No need to scare the shit out of all of them until they had something to distract from their creepy leader.

"Oh man my back is killing me. Wait a sec. Why the hell are we all out here on the floor? And why can't remember anything from last night?"

Blake froze and consulted her other self. 'Noire, what the fuck did you do?'

'I didn't do anything.'

'Liar!'

'No, seriously, I didn't do anything. I can't remember any more than you. Which sucks cause it was probably an awesome orgy.'

'Shut up.'

Nobody spoke for a while as they tried in vain to recall the previous day's events. Sadly for them all memory of their fun on Halo 4 was locked away by the universe until such time as the final event would occur, which was not for some time yet. They would be lucky to see any of it by the end of the summer.

Further contemplation was cut off by the sudden awakening of their glorious leader. All of a sudden all the shadows in the room seemed to flock to the red-haired girl and shrouded her in darkness. "Hey guys. What the hell happened last night?"

Weiss sighed, feeling as if she had failed somehow. "Maybe we should just watch some more Red vs. Blue."